Ad Hoc Committee for a new UN convention on countering the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes

About the Ad Hoc Committee

Through its resolution 74/247, the General Assembly decided to establish an open-ended ad hoc intergovernmental committee of experts, representative of all regions, to elaborate a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes, taking into full consideration existing international instruments and efforts at the national, regional and international levels on combating the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes, in particular the work and outcomes of the open-ended intergovernmental Expert Group to Conduct a Comprehensive Study on Cybercrime.

Pursuant to General Assembly resolution 74/247, the ad hoc committee convened a three-day organizational session in May 2021, in New York, in order to agree on an outline and modalities for its further activities, to be submitted to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session for its consideration and approval. The organizational session was originally scheduled to take place in August 2020 but due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the General Assembly decided through first its decision 74/567 of 14 August 2020 and then 75/555 of 15 January 2021 to postpone the organizational session of ad hoc committee to 10-12 May 2021.

The ad hoc committee elected the Officers of the Committee and discussed an outline and modalities for its further activities at its organizational session.

On May 26 2021 the General Assembly adopted resolution 75/282, entitled "Countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes."

In the same resolution, the General Assembly decided, inter alia, that the Ad Hoc Committee shall convene at least six sessions, of 10 days each, to commence in January 2022, a concluding session in New York, and conclude its work in order to provide a draft convention to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session; it further decided that the Committee shall hold the first, third and sixth negotiating sessions in New York and the second, fourth and fifth sessions in Vienna…

… and shall be guided by the rules of procedure of the General Assembly.

 In line with decision 76/552 of the General Assembly, the Ad Hoc Committee held a one-day meeting on organizational matters on 24 February 2022, and its first session from 28 February to 11 March 2022. During this first session the Ad Hoc Committee approved the road map and mode of work for the Committee; its aim is to facilitate the fulfillment of the Committee’s mandate through a well-planned, organized and transparent approach.

The proposed agenda sets the concluding session of the Ad Hoc Committee in 2024; during this session finalization and approval of the draft text of the convention should occurr, together with the discussion and approval of a draft resolution to which the text of the draft convention will be annexed, for consideration and adoption by the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session, in 2024

A Frequently Asked Questions document with information on a new United Nations convention on cybercrime is available here.